Lebanon to file UN complaint against Israel over airspace violations

Lebanon’s President Michel Sleiman instructed the country’s foreign minister on Sunday to file a complaint with the United Nations over Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace.

The president’s office announced the order in a statement after Israeli warplanes could be heard flying over several parts of the country on Sunday morning.

“President Michel Sleiman tasked Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour with filing an urgent complaint to the United Nations about Israel’s persistent airspace violations, including over all of Lebanon this morning, including the capital Beirut,” a statement said.

The Lebanese National News Agency confirmed Sunday that Israeli warplanes could be seen in northeast Lebanon and over the country’s capital.

AFP correspondents throughout the country reported unusually low and loud Israeli overflights on Sunday morning, including in Beirut.

Israeli warplanes routinely violate Lebanese airspace and have launched several attacks against Syrian targets in recent months, some reportedly carried out from over Lebanon.

In May, the UN called on Israel to halt increased military air patrols over Lebanon as tensions soared after two Israeli air attacks on Syria.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said then that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, had protested after recording a surge in Israeli flights over Lebanon.

He told a briefing the overflights are a “violation of Lebanese sovereignty and of Security Council resolution 1701″ which allowed for a ceasefire that ended Israel’s military incursion into southern Lebanon in 2006.

Israel fought a devastating war against the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.

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